THERE IS NO LOSS

CRUELLER THAN THE

death of a child.

When your child is diagnosed with an incurable condition, your heart breaks and your world falls apart but you never give up hope. When your child dies suddenly something dies in you too.

Facing that journey on your own is terrifying. You feel so alone. Without Hope House Children's Hospices you struggle on often isolated in your pain and grief. We must help.

Every week three local families face their biggest fear and their child dies. Tragically Hope House can only afford to help one.

Hope House Children's Hospices cannot stop children dying but we can stop families suffering on their own. When they are facing the most devastating loss of their lives we must be there. We must reach every child mum dad sister and brother who need us.

Pain beyond words needs support without limits.

CHLOE'S

STORY

Chloe was just 22 years old when she died. Always the life and soul of the party and surrounded by family and friends, she had a job she loved and was so excited about the future.

But a tragic accident changed everything in the blink of an eye.Chloe suffered fatal injuries when the tractor she was riding on overturned during what began as a happy day at the beach with her boyfriend.

Chloe’s mum Karen was distraught. Twelve years earlier she had to break the news to her children that their dad had died suddenly. Karen thought that was the worst time of her life. She never imagined there was worse to come when she had to tell her son that his sister had died too.

Karen could not bear to think of her vibrant, healthy daughter in a hospital mortuary or a funeral home. She didn’t know where to turn.

Thankfully she knew of Tŷ Gobaith and the Snowflake Room, a special room where children who have died can spend time before their funeral so that their families and friends can say goodbye in their own time and in their own way. When Karen heard Chloe could come to Tŷ Gobaith she breathed again. She felt that she was getting her beautiful daughter back.

Karen found her favourite photo of Chloe. She was wearing her bobble hat and fluffy jacket and had her hair in pigtails. Karen searched for those clothes and gave them and the photo to the nurses at Tŷ Gobaith. They dressed her and did her hair and make-up. She looked stunning. She just looked like Chloe.

More than 50 of Chloe’s friends and family came to Tŷ Gobaith. Some sat in the private garden outside the Snowflake Room, some sat and chatted to Chloe and said their goodbyes. They cried and they laughed together. The nurses looked after them too.

Her best friends came and put an angel wing bracelet on Chloe’s wrist so they could always be together. They brought her favourite scented candles and lit them and played her favourite Ed Sheeran CD over and over.

Those precious days at Tŷ Gobaith made Chloe’s family and friends feel that they had her back with them again. They all said it gave them the strength to carry on.